Inspired?
"All my life I had been looking for
something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was.
I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction
and even self-contradictory. I was naïve. I was looking for myself and
asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could
answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my
expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been
born with: That I am nobody but myself.”
--Ralph Ellison, From Invisible Man
How do the Inspired Bicycles: Way Back Home
presentation and the Ralph Ellison quote relate to your world? Do they
provide you with a new perspective? How should we examine our lives? Who
are we? How shall we live? Should we follow our dreams? What are our
realizations? Can the presentation and quotation connect with your
academic endeavors? Did they make you look twice? Did they inspire and
motivate you? If you have seen one of these before, what is your new
reaction? Other reactions? Please connect and comment using complete
sentences. This blog post should be completed by Friday, September 25th,
2015 at 2:30p.m.
posted by Greg T at Monday, August 10, 2015
11 Comments:
All my life I have been looking for something as well. When I was younger I would turn to others for what that something was only to realize later in life that I would never be content with what others have for me and that the only person I could look to for guidance in life was myself. I have always known that I am nobody but myself, that I am different and need to embrace these differences, and that I need to find a way to live my life to best fit me. Although I've been trying in the last few years of my life I haven't been able to find true meaning, or my bicycling if you will, but I know one day I will.
After watching the Inspired Bicycles: Way Back Home and reading Ralph Ellison's quote it made me think about everything I am so passionate about. Like sports, family, friends, my dreams, they all are things I am passionate about. We should follow our dreams because our dreams are what we want to do/be. We want to live the life we dream about. All my life my mom and dad always told me to follow my dreams, I didn't understand what my dreams were. And in middle school my dreams and my morals were always shot down by the people I used to call "my friends." I think we should look at our lives like a precious moment. Don't take anything for granted and never give up what you want to live for. When you are thinking about your dreams don't think of something crazy that you know will never happen like meeting a witch or something like that because they aren't real but think about what can actually be accomplished and never give up on those. It is hard to find true meaning of living life, because there is multiple definitions and they are all determined by what you want in your life.
Finding yourself and who you want to be in life is one of the hardest tasks everyone takes on. We all start off fresh, just some of us get things better than others. Hopping on a bike for the first time, you're going to struggle. Some more than others but if enough work is put into it, you can achieve anything. Every professional bike rider started out with training wheels. Falling, making mistakes, finding how to ride the bike easier and easier as I grow and time goes on.
After watching the inspired bicycles video I realized everyone is a beginner at first. Danny the bicyclist did not always know how to do insane tricks on his bike in fact at one point he did not even know how to ride a bike. I now understand the saying " it is never too late to start" because of the fact that no one begins an expert at anything. I will now start trying to do new things because you never know how much you could like it. I believe this ties in with an open mindset. If you never try something then you will never know if you like it. All and all you should always have a open mindset and never be scared to try anything new.
More than one time in my life I have turned toward more than one individual, asking them more then one question on how to do something or what something means. I just went with what they were told me and thought they were right. Now that I have grown up a little more learning along the way, I began to develop my own perspective. I noticed more what was around me and saw what reality was like once I started to become independent. I answered my own questions facing difficult/easy situations to make more sense of life. I completely understand now that we all have a different way at looking at things. When it comes to academics, learning is my responsibility, I have to take ownership of my grades. I have to keep organized and I have to fully understand what is being taught. Putting what is being taught into my own perspective is a little risky and misleading, because it won't always be correct. The quote above is very motivating and inspiring to me because to fully understand, and do it independently leads to success.
After watching, "Inspired Bicycles: Way Back Home" and reading Ralph Ellison's quote I realized that they were similar in a sense that you have to work hard and have dedication to succeed and that only you can motivate yourself and know what you want out of life. It made me think about how for so long I had no idea what I expected in life as I got older and the ideas I have about the future continue to change. Ellison's quote stated, "I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer." It made me think how so many people don't know who they are or who they want to be and try to get answers from others when in reality only you can figure it out for yourself. Everyone is trying to figure out who they are and instead of asking others we should just go out and find what we like, don't like, where we want to go, and what inspires us. We create ourselves and our future by the choices we make, it's what defines us. No one can tell you who you want to be because the mistakes and choices that we make show who we are. It's a journey that'll go on forever because we change and continue to find new things about ourselves as we grow.
Through most of my life I, like many others, asked questions. I didn't ask as many "who should I be" questions, but instead more "how should I be". I knew that I should be only me, but the bigger question was and will be, "how should I be"? It is one that may change situationally, it may change the way I act and say among others searching for the "them" they really are. To live one's life to the fullest really is to be who they really are, and express what they can do, not what they are told they can do. To do what they are passionate about. What I've seen regarding this post be that the video "Inspired Bicycles" and the quote by Ralph Ellison, these ideas really can be brought into what we are going through in school, if who you really is someone who loves cooking, we have a culinary arts class that you could take. If who you really are is someone who loves playing music, we have many classes based around the performance of music. The video and quote are not new to me, but they do bring back the many times that I've been told "You do you", and the many times I've been lightly taught the simple lesson "That I am nobody but myself" - Ralph Ellison.
Ralph Ellison’s quote and Inspired Bicycles: Way Back Home are both great examples of the idea that only you know who you are. Only you know what you can do, and we need to learn to trust ourselves, like the bicyclist. Although, knowing who you are is not something that comes automatically, but following your dreams can help to guide you. I also think that part of our lives are dedicated to finding who we are. For most of our lives, someone whether it be our parents, adults, or even peers keep telling us who they think we are and we keep lying to ourselves by believing them. That makes the search for who we are even longer.
Courtney Caviness
After watching Inspired Bicycles: Way Back Home and reading the Ralph Ellison quote I realized that I am who I am and I can't change that. I might not know who I want to be or what I want to do in the world but I know that I should accept who I am and not criticized myself all the time. I want to follow my dreams and I may not end up being as good at something as Danny MacAskill, but I try my best. I may not know what my passion is yet, but when I do, I will pursue it. Sometimes I think that I am not good at something but I know eventually if I put enough work into it, I can become successful. When I was watching Danny do the tricks on his bike my main thought was to be that good at something, you have to believe in yourself and not be hesitant. If I want to be as good at something as Danny is at biking, I have to believe in myself and not give up. There will be ups and downs in life and learning to enjoy and learn from them is what makes us who we are.
After watching Inspired Bicycles, It showed me that I need to accept who I am. That everyone starts out in a different place in life. I'm just starting out as really unexperienced in a lot of things. This video shows me that I can build upon my already accepted self. I can make myself better. I can try really hard at something and become the most experienced ever. I can basically do anything I want and become amazing at it. It motivates me because anything I can choose and just build on it and become so good at it. It makes me look at things differently and say I could do that. I can do anything, I just have to put my mind to it.
I thought this video showed how everyone starts off somewhere and that just because you are bad at something the first time you try it doesn't mean you should stop doing it. There is always room for improvement and ways too learn. I have noticed when I try something new that I'm not good at I will usually just give up on it and do something else. I do this because it is not fun loosing at something and easier to enjoy something if you win at it.
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